Public screenings of motion pictures have long been dominated by film projection systems. Despite the advancement of electronic video projection systems, such as LCD-based video projectors, it appears likely that film projection of motion pictures will continue to be popular for some time. Film projection provides high brightness, high contrast, and high resolution projection of motion pictures, while present digital systems generally are deficient in these characteristics. Accordingly, it is believed that film will continue to appeal to film purists in the industry and to film-loving audiences. Further, there has been a huge investment in current technology, and an enormous investment would be required to change to non-film technology.
A problem in the motion picture industry is film piracy, which may be of several sorts. One form of piracy is the theft of motion picture film in order to create video tape copies for sale on worldwide black markets. A second form of piracy involves surreptitiously imaging a projected motion picture at a public theater using a video camera, in order to produce low quality copies of current release films for video tape black markets.
Other problems facing the motion picture theater industry are lack of adequate methods of determining audience demographics (e.g., audience counts, age distribution, sex distribution, eating and sitting habits, etc.), and the need to create interactivity and special effects to enhance competitiveness with home entertainment.
The inventors have determined that it would be desirable to solve these problems in an economical fashion that provides additional side benefits. The present invention provides a solution to these problems in just such a fashion.